Everywhere you look online, you read about the certainty of poker’s demise. Poker is a casino loss leader they say. There are no dealers. Poker rooms are a losing proposition. People point to the rapidity of poker room closure during the pandemic and the delayed reopening of many rooms. And it is true that poker…
Since the advent of online casinos, the popularity of these virtual forms of entertainment has grown exponentially. While many people still prefer land-based casinos, the popularity of online casinos has surged with people now able to enjoy a varied range of casino games from the comfort of their own home. There are a range of…
The opening of the MGM Springfield in August 2018 brought in the era of full-scale casinos in Massachusetts. It beat the highly anticipated Encore Boston Harbor’s opening by a full year. MGM Springfield and Encore became Massachusett’s answer to the Connecticut poker scene, represented by Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, and the many small venues in…
We have played at some poker rooms in the middle of nowhere before (see Creek Entertainment Gretna or the Ebro Poker Room). But I don’t think we’ve ever played at a room as remote as the Northwoods Casino in Berlin, New Hampshire. Berlin is waaaaaay in the north of the state, closer to Canada than…
In his PTO Poker 101 course (PTO stands for Player Theory Optimal), Joel Wald provides what most players need: the fundamental filler for the holes in their games. The gaps in some experienced players’ games are often striking. For example, a player leads out for half-pot on the river on a wet board. This indicates…
Poker is one of the most popular table games at casinos, beloved by amateur and professional players around the world. Outside of the casino floor, it’s also one of the few casino games that people regularly play at home. Poker nights are common, but who’s ever been to a baccarat night? Poker was also one…
The Southeastern states have always been thin on legal poker rooms. Once you get south of DC, only Harrah’s Cherokee breaks up the barren poker landscape until you get to the East Coast poker mecca of Florida. Sure, for a while there was Pop’s in Virginia and Little Kings and Queens in Georgia, but both…
Recently, we reviewed the national norms for poker tournaments. The purpose of that article was to give tournament players some idea of tournaments across the country to evaluate their own typical weekly games. However, both from our experiences traveling and looking at the data it’s clear that there is a lot of regional variation in…
By Guest Author Joel Wald Most aspiring professional poker players remember what it was like when they first had the talk. No, not that talk. The talk often occurs when poker has become a bigger part of a player’s life, and they have enjoyed some success. On the one hand, this time can be exciting…